Narcissism Research Paper

Narcissism, is defined as a type of infatuation with one’s self that it’s not necessarily pathological but to some degree is infatuation with one’s self. The term originated from a Greek myth from an historian, about a young boy named Narcissus who walked by a river and looked out of curiosity, seeing his face and admiring it, until he fell into the water and drowned to death. Despite the various versions from different writers and poets, the general idea of Narcissus dying due to his infatuation with himself was a common theme. Sigmund Freud, a neurologist known for his various theories on the human mind, and later the patriarch of psychoanalysis discussed Narcissism in his 1914 “In Narcissism” and questioned his fellow colleagues’s theories …show more content…
Furthermore, Sigmund Freud believed that there were only two types of Narcissism, one case where the disorder was pathological and the other just a natural aspect of human nature. Nevertheless, Freud refuted his predecessor's knowledge on narcissism in his papers, but ultimately failed to recognize that Narcissism had an underlying factor of anxiety(Fine 45). Due to the lack of knowledge in the 1900’s, Freud shared the same view as many others of his time, believing that mental disorders had nothing to do with anxiety. Another writer, by the name of Otto Rank believed that Narcissism was related to vanity and self-admiration and disproved an earlier piece of work, written by Havelock Ellis who believed that narcissism was a purely sexual condition, rather than a personality disorder or even a mental disorder (Ellison, Levy, Reyson). Once the field of Psychology was established, various people such as Kohut who brought the topic of narcissism back up. Before Kohut, the topic of narcissism was almost taboo, due to it’s purely negative connotation and the lack of understanding on the topic itself(Fine …show more content…
Consequently Kohut’s ideas were challenged by others, many trying to disprove his ideas on narcissism and advocating theirs as the “correct” answer to what narcissism was and how did it affect people. A man from the latter 1900’s named Pulver concurred that Freud’s definition and explanation of narcissism was accurate for his time, but then opposed his definition and proposed a more precise definition of narcissism as “a concentration of psychological interest upon the self” (Fine 54). Over time, Narcissism has been defined by the book Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders(DSM) and has many editions, adding new versions as new information is learned from observing and treating patients and research. Narcissism was added to the DSM after Theodore Millon, a psychologist had determined 5 major types of Narcissism. Despite Millon’s list of various types of Narcissists, albeit not all were recognized as actual types of narcissism. Perceived by society as bad, Narcissism was never truly defined or clarified till the latter of the 1900’s by various contemporaries at the time, such as Kohut,Kernberg and

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